IETF Publishes RFC 10008, Adding the QUERY Method for Safe Requests With a Body
In June 2026, the IETF published RFC 10008, introducing the QUERY method to HTTP, the first new standard HTTP verb since 2010. QUERY enables developers to send richer query filters in the request body while maintaining cacheable, safe, and idempotent semantics. This addition addresses long-standing limitations with GET and POST methods, facilitating improved API interactions. By Daniel Curtis
In June 2026, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) published RFC 10008, introducing the QUERY method for HTTP requests with a body. This marks the first new standard HTTP verb since PATCH was introduced in 2010. QUERY was developed by Julian Reschke, James Snell, and Mike Bishop after a discussion reopened by Asbjørn Ulsberg at the 2019 HTTP Workshop.
The primary purpose of QUERY is to address an ongoing debate among developers regarding the limitations of GET and POST methods. While GET is safe and idempotent, its filters are constrained by URL length and can be exposed in access logs. Conversely, POST can handle rich data but lacks safety, idempotency, and cacheability, leading to potential state changes and caching issues.
QUERY offers a middle ground, enabling rich request bodies while preserving the benefits of GET, such as safety, idempotency, and cacheability. When implementing QUERY, servers must incorporate the request content into the cache key to ensure cacheability. The new method is advertised through the 'Accept-Query' field. The adoption of QUERY, like PATCH before it, is expected to be gradual, with the IETF draft history indicating a long path to widespread implementation.
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